My vote goes to 2003. Dominated by dry, boring defensive teams in Minnesota, Anaheim and New Jersey. Avs and Wings ousted in the first round. Exciting Canucks team led by a peaking Naslund and Bertuzzi let down by a peaking Cloutier. And a finals series that exceeds professional golf as a cure for insomnia.

My vote goes to 2003. Dominated by dry, boring defensive teams in Minnesota, Anaheim and New Jersey. Avs and Wings ousted in the first round. Exciting Canucks team led by a peaking Naslund and Bertuzzi let down by a peaking Cloutier. And a finals series that exceeds professional golf as a cure for insomnia.

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yeah 2003 was pretty lame, and im usually all for upsets but even the upsetting was just boring. Id also say 07 was fairly lame as well. Ana vs. OTT, seriously? yuck

2003 was the first thing that came to mind when I saw the thread title. The fact that New Jersey won the Cup with Jamie Langenbrunner and Scott Niedermayer leading them in scoring with 18 points in 24 games should tell us how exciting those playoffs were.

I'm biased but 2002 doesn't really belong here. The Finals weren't all that when you look at it being a 4-1 series but then don't forget there was a 3OT game (I believe third longest Finals game ever?) whilst the series was tied 1-1. The WCF went seven and though Game 7 wasn't close, the fact it was such a blowout (incl. the infamous Roy statue of liberty goal)in such a rivalry made it special. And Colorado had to fend off two seven game challenges to even get there. The Wings had to come back from losing their first two at home to the Canucks.

In the East, you had a tightly fought Bruins-Habs series with Koivu coming back from cancer and the McLaren hit that today would probably lead to the Canadian army being involved. The Leafs made a deep run and though they lost to the Canes in six games, three of the Leafs' losses came in OT.

I won't claim it was one of the best, Carolina was too random a Finals team, but it was certainly a pretty entertaining playoff.

I think you'll find a lot of people loved the 2009 playoffs. Lots of enticing storylines there. 2008 was alright as well, the Philly/Washington series was pretty epic. Montreal vs. Boston again. Ah well.

I agree with others 2003 was one of those playoffs that epitomized why the clutch and grab era is history. 2004 was such a great playoff, so I don't get what happened there.

But 2003 had some terrible storylines. Anaheim/Minnesota resulted in a sweep with Minnesota scoring...........one goal. Really Jacques Lemaire? How in the world did this team beat a very good Vancouver team? Okay fine......Cloutier, but still.

Toronto/Philly was a very good series I'll admit though and I say this as a Leaf fan. I guess it just brings me back to the days when they were Cup contenders. But when Jersey beat Ottawa in Game 7 I immediately knew the final would be a snore. Jersey vs. Anaheim? Come on, at least Ottawa played a pretty high tempo offense back then.

Other years that come to mind are many of the mid 1990s years. 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1998 all had sweeps in the final with a grand total of two overtime games to boot combined. The Devils won, the Panthers made the final and robbed us of a classic Pitt/Col final. Lindros choked and was stomped all over in what should have been a classic final and Washington made the 1998 final basically because of the crease rule in the Boston series. Just poor overall playoff years with no enticing storylines and 1998 had only one 7 game series which resulted in a 4-0 Edmonton win.

I'll also nominate 1981. Probably the easiest path the Islanders had in their dynasty. They played Minnesota in the final and that whole playoff had a combined 8 overtime games. Yeah Gretzky had his coming out party but even that series against Montreal was incredibly one-sided.

Aside from the infamous Colorado-Detroit series, it was pretty garbage from what I remember. Basically, I just recall being pissed that Florida was clutching and tackling their way past better teams. Predictably, they got thumped in a very anti-climactic finals and only scored 4 goals.

1996 had a couple of key moments including Yzerman's OT goal and the bad blood between Claude and the Wings. But the final was pretty dull and overall it wasn't too memorable.

I'd def have to say 2003 was the worst I have watched. It was the peak of the clutch/defensive style that wasn't all that exciting to watch. Giggy was spectacular, but his padding and equipment was ridiculous. It wasn't very entertaining hockey, even when though the finals did end up going 7 games.

1998 was nothing too special either and I was a Wings fan. Sure, you had the Vladdy storyline but there wasn't too much anomosity/ bad blood to get to the finals. Plus, Washington didn't fare too well in the finals. Game # 2 was exciting though.

1996 had a couple of key moments including Yzerman's OT goal and the bad blood between Claude and the Wings. But the final was pretty dull and overall it wasn't too memorable.

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Oh yeah, I totally forgot that goal was 1996. Yzerman was my favourite non-Leaf and I really thought that was the year they would win it all. I was pretty pissed when Colorado beat them, but looking back, that was a great rivalry.

Oh yeah, I totally forgot that goal was 1996. Yzerman was my favourite non-Leaf and I really thought that was the year they would win it all. I was pretty pissed when Colorado beat them, but looking back, that was a great rivalry.

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If it weren't for the Miami Dolph...err Florida Panthers tackling Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr on every shift in the Eastern Finals, we could have seen a Cup Finals for the ages. Jagr-Lemieux vs. Sakic-Forsberg. Obviously, one team had Roy and the other had Wregget, or Barrasso, or whoever the hell was in goal for the Penguins, and that makes it pretty clear that Colorado still would have won the Cup fairly easily. But it could have been something special to watch. Just like in 1993, when we were dreaming a Lemieux-Gretzky Finals, the great matchup didn't happen.

Roy was the difference in the Western Finals in 96. Not exactly an unheard-of happening, but you have to wonder if Detroit talked to Montreal about him when it was apparent that he was going to be dealt.

The one qualm I have with 2003 being listed, is that I don't know how anybody who was watching could have found the Wild to be a boring team. Their series with Vancouver was one of my all-time favorites, and they had a great battle with Colorado as well. The Anaheim series, yeah that was terrible, but the first 14 games of that run were very entertaining, at least to me.

2008 might be my choice. I had very little interest in either Detroit or Pittsburgh. I enjoyed Philly's run to the conference final, and the Bruins almost coming back from 3-1 against the Habs, but that's about it. Very little drama overall.